Religious Education at St. Paul

St. Paul on the Lake’s Religious Education staff is committed to serving the entire St. Paul parish family, providing on-going faith formation through experiences of learning about God, growing deeper in relationship with God through prayer, and service to God’s people.

In both St. Paul School and in the after-school Religious Education program, our primary goal is to help our students develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is done in the context of a program which:

provides an experience of and encourages a reverence for Sacred Scripture;

emphasizes the importance of living the Word through prayer and action in our daily lives;

is faithful to Church doctrine;

encourages a meaningful participation in the communal, sacramental and liturgical life of the Church.

At St. Paul, our children come from a variety of public and private schools. Our enrollment is 400+ children, with about 60 teens and adults serving as catechists/teachers. St. Paul cooperates with all of the parishes in the SERF Vicariate (i.e., parishes in the Grosse Pointes, St. Clair Shores, Eastpointe and Roseville areas) in order to extend opportunities for religious education to all of the children in our area. Religious education normally starts in pre-Kindergarten and goes through the eighth grade year. Children in high school are encouraged to participate in Spirit Youth Ministry.

First Reconciliation (Sacrament of Penance/Confession), First Eucharist (Communion), and Confirmation are “family affairs” at St. Paul and require parental involvement. Formation sessions are held for parents when their children are preparing to receive any of these sacraments, and other activities outside of the classroom for parents and children together will be scheduled. We view these times as an opportunity for the whole family to grow together in faith! Required and informational forms for each sacrament can be found below.

You don’t need to have a degree in theology in order to share Jesus with a young person or adult who wants to learn more about the faith. Training is available and “novice” catechists can “shadow” or apprentice under a more “seasoned” catechist.

All adult volunteers and paid employees of parishes and Catholic Schools who have regular and/or unsupervised contact with minors must attend a VIRTUS training session (Protecting God’s Children) sponsored by the Archdiocese of Detroit Safe Environments Department. Protecting God’s Children is a three-hour awareness session for adults in the faith community who interact with minors.